Tuesday, June 13, 2006

Have we learned nothing from H.P. Lovecraft?

According to this press release, the University of Calgary is sending researchers to investigate an "alien-like glacier" deep in the Arctic Circle.

Beauchamp discovered the spring in the mid-1990s when he noticed a yellow stain on the snow while passing over the Borup Fiord Pass in a helicopter. He eventually visited the site and noticed the strong smell of rotten eggs that indicated the presence of sulfur. Grasby then visited the in 1999 and 2001 and collected samples of the water and mineral deposits from the spring, which contained new forms of bacteria and an extremely rare mineral known as vaterite.